A Conversation with WCC’s Newest Professor: Father Robert Nicoletti
In the spring of 2025, the Wyoming Catholic College community welcomed a new visiting professor to Lander: Father Robert Nicoletti, MJ.
Father was born in Brooklyn, raised in Arizona, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1992. His vocation has given him the chance to live and work in Ukraine, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Puerto Rico, and the USA. Studies at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, Arizona State University, and The Angelicum culminated in the defense of his doctoral thesis in philosophy in June of 2024.
Julian Kwasniewski, the College’s Marketing and Communications Coordinator, recently had the chance to sit down with Father to discuss his background, his path to Wyoming Catholic College, and what excites him most about this next chapter in his adventure.
Wyoming Catholic College: Tell us a little about your background. Where did you grow up?
Father Robert Nicoletti: Life started for me in 1962, in Brooklyn, NY. But by 1972, I was living in Phoenix, AZ, where I stayed while my academic adventures took me through St. John’s College in Santa Fe and Arizona State University. In 1983, I joined Miles Jesu. I professed vows in Avila in 1988, and was ordained a priest in Rome in 1992.
WCC: What is distinctive about your order, Miles Jesu?
Father Nicoletti: It is an “Ecclesial Family of Consecrated Life” with the full name of Sons and Daughters of the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of the Epiphany. Within the community, we have consecrated lay men and Priests, and other communities of consecrated lay women–with perpetual vows. Outside the community, we have associates, called Vinculum, who may be married or single.
WCC: What led to your doctoral studies in Rome, and what was the topic of the doctorate that you completed during your time there?
Father Nicoletti: Miles Jesu does most of its philosophical and theological studies in Roman Pontifical universities. After working in Ukraine for 16 years, I discerned that teaching philosophy was part of my calling, so I returned to The Angelicum to complete a doctorate with the title, “Thomistic Order in Stanley Jaki, Philosopher.”
WCC: How did you come to be ministering in Ukraine?
Father Nicoletti: At the time of the fall of the Iron Curtain, Miles Jesu saw that Communism would leave a vacuum which could be filled with either God or money. I was sent to Ukraine in 1995 to help convince the youth there that God was the better choice.
From 1995-2011, I joined consecrated lay men and women of Miles Jesu to serve in two orphanages, a soup kitchen, and a youth center for retreats and confessions as well as catholic formation of youth and professionals. Although there still were many toxic hold-overs from the anti-God system, I enjoyed meeting heroic priests and laymen, and seeing the Greek-Catholic Ukrainian Church come up from under-ground.
They need our prayers.
WCC: What brought you to Wyoming Catholic?
Father Nicoletti: A Wyoming Catholic College student informed my community in Phoenix about the program and the ambience here. The Catholic environment to study the Great Books is what drew me.
WCC: You come to Wyoming Catholic College as a visiting professor. What excites you most about our unique curriculum, and what is your favorite topic to study or teach?
Father Nicoletti: Liberal Arts, while preparing a person for any profession, also enables us to drink from Sacred Tradition our whole life, and enrich others with it. I myself am always eager to study Thomism, metaphysics, cosmology, and the like. And teaching it is even better!
WCC: As a priest who has celebrated multiple liturgical rites, why do you think it valuable for Roman and Byzantine Catholics to participate in each other’s liturgical traditions?
Father Nicoletti: The diverse cultures which gave birth to our Catholic rites promote the same Faith but with different emphases in theology, devotion, and liturgy. Why not enjoy the Mysteries from diverse and complementary perspectives?
WCC: What is one thing you look forward to doing during your time in Wyoming?
Father Nicoletti: I look forward to learning how residents think. Over 40 years of consecrated life, the Lord has often shown me how each locale has its culture to learn from. Curiosity aside, this experience helps me to serve them.
